A Burning Problem In Sri Lanka & The Solutions
View(s):- Avoid Using Cancer Sticks To Lead A Healthy Life
- Quit Smoking And Start Healing
- Health Education For Students
Smoking is a problem in many aspects, mainly in health, economic, social and development contexts. It is a problem at the individual, family, community and national levels.
Sri Lankan Statistics:
The Epidemiology Unit, Tobacco Tactics, the UNDP, and the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation report tobacco-related deaths in Sri Lanka.
Sources
- Epidemiology Unit: Reports that around 60 people die each day in Sri Lanka due to smoking
- Tobacco Tactics: Estimates that tobacco is responsible for 1 in every 10 adult deaths in Sri Lanka
- UNDP: Estimates that tobacco kills around 20,000 Sri Lankans per year
- Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation: Estimated that in 2019, 12,036 Sri Lankan deaths were tobacco-related
Other sources
- Global Adult Tobacco Survey (GATS): Reports that tobacco use is a leading cause of preventable deaths worldwide
- Tobacco Atlas: Reports on tobacco use and deaths in Sri Lanka
- Registrar General’s Department: Provides data on tobacco-related deaths in Sri Lanka
- National Cancer Registry: Provides data on tobacco-related deaths in Sri Lanka
- Department of Census and Statistics: Provides data on tobacco-related deaths in Sri Lanka
- Central Bank of Sri Lanka: Provides data on tobacco-related deaths in Sri Lanka
Tobacco use is a major risk factor for diseases such as heart disease or stroke. It also causes high healthcare costs and lost earnings due to mortality and morbidity.
Cigarette is the only product, which kills one out of two consumers. Smoking has always been associated with ill health disabilities and non-communicable diseases, mainly oral and lung cancers.
In addition, research findings have revealed that smoking also increases the risk of death from Communicable diseases as well. Smoking damages blood vessels and can make them thicken and grow narrower. This makes your heart beat faster and your Blood Pressure goes up. Clots can also form in the arteries. A stroke occurs when a clot blocks the blood flow to part of your brain or when a blood vessel in or around your bursts.
Blockages caused by smoking can also reduce blood flow to your legs and skin.
Nearly all organs are affected by smoking.
Smoking causes Type II diabetes and cataracts, weakens bones and gums, aggravates and triggers asthma and affects the quality of sperm in men thereby decreasing fertility and immune function.
Smoking causes diminished overall health, Increased absenteeism from work and increased health care utilisation cost. Smoking is estimated to increase the risk of Coronary Heart disease by 2-4 times, stroke by 2-4 times and cancer(men) by 25 times. A cigarette is also known as a “Cancer stick”.
Why should you quit smoking?
- Quitting Smoking cuts cardiovascular risks just 1 year after quitting smoking, your risk for a heart attack drops sharply.
- Within 2-5 years after quitting smoking, your risk for stroke could fall to about the same as a non-smoker.
- Cancer of the mouth, throat, esophagus and bladder drops by half within 5 years.
- 10 years after you quit smoking, your risk for lung cancer drops by half.
- As soon as you quit smoking, you get immediate health benefits. After only 20 minutes, your heart rate goes back to normal. Within a day, your blood’s carbon monoxide level also falls back into place. In just 2-3 weeks, you will start to lower your odds of having a heart attack.
RECOMMENDATIONS-LONG TERM
- Make legislation to Ban smoking in Sri Lanka. By doing this the government will have to provide alternative jobs for those who are directly or indirectly engaged in the tobacco industry.
- Provide Psychological counselling for the needy.
- Considering the number of Consultant Psychiatrists in Sri Lanka, I would like to recommend that the government empower all general practitioners to handle Psychiatric cases by providing special courses in Psychiatry and making it compulsory.
- Create awareness among the Public on new meaningful hobbies & recreational work, in the Electronic and Mass Media.
- Create further awareness of spiritual life to cope with one’s problems and lead a vibrant and meaningful life.
RECOMMENDATIONS- MEDIUM TERM
- High-intensity anti-smoking campaigns in the Electronic and Mass media.
- Making the tobacco companies pay for those who are affected due to smoking or pay compensation to the family members who lost their members due to smoking.
- Create awareness of the benefits of not smoking among schoolchildren.
- Include the above benefits in the student’s curriculum.
- Ban selling cigarettes in the grocery shops.
- Reduce the length of the cigarettes.
- Reduce the number of cigarettes in a box.
- Provide Rehabilitation to those who are affected due to smoking by making the tobacco companies pay for it.
- The Government and the Ministry of Education along with the Medical Professionals to focus on formulating and implementing strategies on Primary prevention of cigarette smoking to benefit the students.
- Since unemployment and poverty are the two main reasons for cigarette smoking among the students,
- our government should take immediate steps to alleviate poverty and provide employment for the graduates and others.
RECOMMENDATIONS- SHORT TERM
- Create awareness of holistic living.
- Create a better culture for students.
- Parents, Priest Community, Principals, Elders, Mentors and Teachers get together and draw a Plan of Action, for their respective families and institutions.
- They may consider to draw up a plan based on the following slogan;
- “Do not touch the cancer stick”.
- Also, they should identify the “root cause of the problem”, for cigarette smoking and eliminate the identified problem and improve the “quality of life” of students.
- Educate the students on the importance of their culture, heritage, traditions and upbringing.
- Parents and Teachers to set an example for their children, by being non-smokers.
- Teach the importance and values of being a disciplinarian.
- Educate the students on the After effects or side effects, that may reduce their life span.
- Further increments in the cigarette tax to be made by the government, thereby increasing the Price of cigarettes.
- Discourage new smokers.
- Government to restrict the imports of cigarettes to the country. If imports of vehicles could be considered, I am sure it could be applied to imports of cigarettes, too.
- Government to initiate an island wide anti-smoking campaign on the following slogan;
- “Quit Smoking and Start Healing”.
CONCLUSION
As students, you need to focus on learning and follow the guidance given by your Parents, Principals, Mentors, Teachers and Elders. You may come across friends with bad habits but do not follow their bad practices in life. Your body is a Temple and taking good care of it is your cardinal duty. You have a bright future ahead of you. Hence, take care of yourself first. If you are a smoker “quit smoking now” and gain later, in life.
- Maruthai Ravindhiran
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